Cursed
by Autumnsfalling
Summary: Homecoming has come once again to Pleasantville High, and Autumn can't shake this lonely feeling shes been having. Can Merton make her see that she really is loved? Summary Sucks. One-Shot. Merton/OC


A/N: Found this in my old computer and thought I would post it. If people like it I might expand on it or maybe do a series of one shots based around the characters. It's really old so if it sucks I'm sorry. And this obviously ignores the happenings in Pleased To Eat You….cause honestly that episode always freaked me out. Oh and this is a bit OC for Lori…And of course I own nothing but Autumn, if I did there would at least be a DVD version of the show.

The day of the homecoming dance was finally here and Lori and I had gotten ready together, helping each other with our hair and makeup. I had been skeptical of her at first but she turned out to be one the best friends I could have ever had, despite the fact that we were so different, me being 'goth' and her being sporty. It turned out though that we had a lot in common, including extremely bad crushes on our best friends. Different friends of course, otherwise I doubt things would have worked out so well. Yes its true… the boys I am talking about are none other than Tommy Dawkins and Merton Dingle, the star quarter-back and the quirky goth boy. Lori was of course after Tommy, and I was in love with Merton. I couldn't really explain why, there was just something about him that drew me to him. The way that he was always so enthusiastic about the new monsters that he learned about, or how he was so loyal to Tommy, who had in previous years treated him like shit. Not to mention that he was incredibly cute. Anyway, me and Lori had gotten ready together at her house and were picked up by Tommy and Merton to go to the dance. As much as I would like to say it was because they were our dates, I would be lying. No sadly it was because we had all decided to go as friends… fun right? No. I thought it would be ok, but watching Tommy and Lori out there dancing with each other, and having to sit next to my _friend_ Merton at the table is killing me. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Tommy finally got a clue and got with Lori, but it's hard to be happy when Merton is sitting there still completely oblivious. I sighed as one of my favorite slow songs started to pour from the speakers. I had never really been all that depressed before, but the last few weeks had taken a turn for the worse. Ever since Lori had developed feelings for Tommy, all I had heard from her was things about him, even tonight when we had gotten ready together it had been all about him, nothing about me or how I hoped the night would pan out. I was never really all that close to Tommy, not like I was to Merton or Lori, so the lack of his presence in my life hadn't been that big of a deal, besides with all the werewolf shit going on it was easy for me to understand. And then there was Merton. Over the past few weeks we had really only seen each other when we went to deal with the supernatural monsters coming out of the cracks. He and I had bonded the second we met each other and were always around each other, but he had been busy lately and was often canceling our plans so that he could research things for Tommy. I mean I knew I was being a little selfish but I couldn't help but feel that I was constantly getting in the way of helping them and causing more problems. Over the past few weeks it had become increasingly clear to me that I was not needed by this small group of friends, or by anyone. Add that to my already low self-esteem and I was the most depressed I had ever been. And being at that dance with no one to dance with, and no one who would even talk to me, well I'm sure that's what brought me to where I am now. It's what made me get up and hug Merton, and tell him that I was going to the bathroom and then walking home. It's what made me walk into the girl's bathroom and lock the door and break down. Sitting on the cold bathroom tile I don't know what made me do it. This was so unlike me. I was never in my life suicidal, but for reasons I could not understand I picked up a broken piece of porcelain and stared at it, knowing what I was going to do next. To say that it was what I wanted would be a lie, but I really had no control over myself anymore. I was about to do it when there was a loud knock on the door and over the music I could just barely make out Merton's voice.

"Autumn? Hey you still in there? You left your purse out here."

Knowing that he was just on the other side of that door killed me more, and before I knew it I was sobbing loudly.

"Autumn?! Are you ok? ...Autumn answer me….if you don't answer me then….then I'm coming in there…." Merton shouted through the door.

After a few moments the handle started to shake and before long the door was wide open and Merton was standing there looking terrified. I silently cursed the makers of the flimsy ass doors that our school was equipped with. Merton quickly closed the door the best he could behind him and looked at me in shock.

"What are you doing? Autumn, what is wrong?" His eyes were glued to the piece of jagged porcelain in my hand that was held to my wrist.

"Go away Merton; please don't make this harder for me."

"What? No! I will not leave and let you do this to yourself!" He stated, looking scared, confused and hurt.

"Please Merton, it's what's best, trust me, I don't belong here anymore, no one needs me, it's better if I just go." I pleaded, tears streaming down my face.

"No! I refuse to let you do this to yourself. You are wrong, you do belong here, and we do need you." He insisted. I just rolled my eyes and scoffed. "Really Autumn, we do. Tommy needs you because you are one of the few people who know about him and he needs all the support he can get. Lori needs you cause without you she would go insane from lack of girlfriends, and well… I need you. If you were gone who would be there for me? You understand me in a different way than they do. You are the only one who really gets me. You don't think I'm weird when I start spouting off random facts, or go on tangents about movies. You make me feel better about myself; you make my life worth living. Please Autumn don't do this."

"I'm sorry Merton; I just know that things would be better without me. I'm always getting in the way, and I'm never really any help with anything, I'm mean just last week I made everyone's life so much harder by being stupid and getting kidnapped by those vampires."

"The only reason that we were able to find them to get rid of them was because Tommy was able to track your scent on them and find you. You helped a lot whether it was intentional or not. You always help, and I know that Tommy and Lori would agree with me. Please don't do this, we need you…I need you. Please." Merton said inching closer to where I was sitting, small tears forming in his eyes.

"You don't need me, no one needs me. If I were to die right now you would live on, it might be hard at first, but then you would realize how much life is easier without me and get over it and it would be like I was never here to begin with. So no, you don't need me."

"You're wrong. I do need you. If you do this then it will kill me."

"No it wouldn't." Getting frustrated with his insistence.

"Autumn you don't understand!" Taking the porcelain from my hands and throwing it across the room.

"What….what don't I understand?!" Screaming at him with tears falling down my face.

"I need you because I love you!" He screamed back, tears streaking down his cheeks, his skin tinted red with frustration. By now he was kneeling on the ground next to me holding my hands in his and looking me dead in the eyes.

"You what?" Looking at him with hope.

"I love you," he said wiping the tears from my cheek with this thumb and staring me in the eyes. As soon as he had uttered those three simple words it was like a curse had been broken and suddenly I didn't know why I had begun this at all.

"I love you too," I whispered back, "I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. It was like I just suddenly had the urge to just end it all. It just hit me all at once and I couldn't stop it. It was like all the pain and frustration that I have been feeling the past couple weeks just came at me all at once and I was just so overwhelmed that I didn't know what else to do. I'm so sorry."

"Shhh, it's ok, it's all over now. No need to be sorry, it might not of even been under your control," hugging me to him. Upon me looking at him confused he just shook his head, "let's not go into that now. For now how about we go and see if we can catch the last couple dances. After all it is our last homecoming and I would like to say that I was able to dance with my girl at one." He said softly, smiling at me.

"Your girl? Since when am I your girl?" I asked, jokingly of course.

"Well, I was hoping…you know….that…um…well…" He stuttered turning red and rubbing the back of his neck. Yeah everything was definitely back to normal. I grabbed his hands in mine and pulled him up off the floor.

"Relax; of course you can dance with _your_ girl." Smiling at him as I pulled him out of the bathroom and onto the dance floor, not caring at all that both of our faces were streaked with tears and that we looked like hell. All either of us cared about was that we were finally in each other's arms, my head buried into his neck, as we swayed back and forth on the dance floor.


End file.
